The Sydney Convicts have retained the Bingham Cup – the gay and inclusive Rugby World Cup – in a 31-0 grand final thrashing of the Brisbane Hustlers in Sydney.

Australian teams dominated the three-day international tournament that ended with the one-sided decider in Rose Bay on Sunday. The Sydney Convicts, Australia’s first gay rugby union club, fielded three teams in the tournament and their A team took out the top prize for the fourth time in the tournament’s history. Convicts A beat Convicts B 58-0 in the semi-finals.

Held for the first time in the southern hemisphere since it began in 2002, the bi-annual competition was contested by 24 teams from 15 countries. NSW Governor Marie Bashir, US Ambassador to Australia John Berry, NSW rugby league State of Origin legend Steve Mortimer and local Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull were all on hand for the seventh Bingham Cup decider.

The match follows a momentous week in Australian rugby, with the Australian Rugby Union announcing an inclusion policy to tackle homophobia.

The competition is named after Mark Bingham, a gay rights advocate who died in the 11 September terrorist attacks. Bingham, a gay American rugby player, led the passenger revolt against hijackers of United Flight 93 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field, killing all 44 on board.

His mother Alice Hoagland is a prominent campaigner for LGBTQ rights and came to Australia for the event.

“It’s such an honour for me to be considered the mother of this great big group,” she said. “I lost my son on 9/11, but I gained a couple thousand sons.”